


Survival

by TheThinWhiteDude



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Or Zerhys who knows I'm trash, This is either gonna be Rhack or Rhaxton, We'll see where it goes this is how I work tbh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2018-11-15 02:27:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11221365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheThinWhiteDude/pseuds/TheThinWhiteDude
Summary: Rhys wakes up after the Fall of Helios alone in a cathedral. Well, not alone for long. He's taken to Sanctuary by the Vault hunters after shoving his Jack-infested ECHO eye back in, and ending up in the wolves' den, he has to figure out how to escape and how to build himself back up.





	1. Now I Can Finally See the Light

**Author's Note:**

> I'm gonna be uploading this in smaller chunks and while idk where this is going yet, I'm predicting Rhack so it may change idk if you enjoy it just sub or w.e bc tags might change  
> P.S. Idk why I can't change the thing but this won't be a one shot it's being stupid I'll upload more chapters have patience

Eyes shifted up from the floor to the ceiling, and then past that, through the opening in the roof of the structure, a hole created by either time or weather. The gaze was narrowed by a squint, trying to let his eyes adjust to the brightness of the light. A voice stirs him from his thoughts as Rhys sits in the abandoned cathedral, head lazily tilting back to study the new figure before him. A man much bigger than himself, clad in camouflage. His hair was short and dirty blond, and a few smudges of dirt marred his face, coupled with scars and an emblem that seemed familiar above his brow. His words weren't quiet sinking in at first, not until he was right behind Rhys, a shot gun in his hands.

"Are you alright?"

It's the trail of blood that lead him here, it has to be. The gaping hole where his cybernetic arm was supposed to go is the culprit , obviously, for the red that lead the man to him, but it's accompanied by blood running down the side of his head from a hole in his temple, and his eye, a dull, glowing blue. Clearly, the eye was red and irritated, from having what looks like old cybernetics carelessly tossed back into the socket after being just as crudely detached. He looks like Hell, and the small voice hissing hatefully in the back of his head isn't helping.

"Get up, Dum Dum. Now. This guy is bad news. One of the fuckers who killed me. Why are you so fucking stupid!? Get up! Get up now!"

"SHUT UP!" It's a desperate scream from a crackling voice, and the smaller of the two physical men is curling in on himself, his only hand covering his ear and willing the voice to quiet down, "...Please..."

Axton looks confused to say the least, and the guy in front of him looks more than a few screws short. Normally, he'd let him be, but something is compelling him to bend down and put a large, reassuring hand on his shoulder, brows drawn in concern while his lips are pulled taut. Like a deer caught in headlights, the younger is finally realizing how close the stranger is coming, eyes wide and staring up the the man in borderline panic. His lips are parted and a whimper escapes him, a familiar sting at his eyes that has him immediately pulling away because, fuck, does it hurt way worse to cry with his messed up cybernetic eye. 

"Rhys, Rhysie, Baby, I need you to listen to me. If this man finds out about me, at all, you're dead, I'm dead. We're BOTH dead. Please, you can't let that happen to me. Please." 

It's just as desperate and begging as his hoarse voice was a minute ago, and his gaze shifts from Axton's form, towering over his own sitting body, to the faint crackle of blue beside him. Jack looks miserable, pleading with furrowed brows, nervously worrying his lip. The blond is turning in the same direction, eyes going right through Jack, clearly trying to see what the brunet was seeing at the moment. There are more footsteps following him in, and when Rhys looks back towards the noise, he's spotting several more figures entering his building. In a panic, his legs are kicking and he's trying to scoot away from the group, whimpering in the back of his throat, his back quickly hitting a wall. Jack is staring at the group with wide eyes and a gaping expression, clearly horrified. 

The commando is putting a hand up to stop any further progression, eyes still trained on the man before him, carefully focused. Soon enough, though, Zer0, the tall, dark, leather clad figure behind him is shaking his head, speaking quietly. 

"He's Hyperion. I saw his face earlier. At Bossanova's." 

"Hyperion? He must have survived the fall and gotten mugged."

"No, before the fall. He was going for a case. Contents were unknown."

"...Kid, what are you doing down here?"

"Please don't hurt me..." It's the most pitiful voice Axton thinks he's ever heard, and he knows the kid isn't from Pandora. He's beaten up to Hell and back, must not be from Pandora in any way, shape, or form, save, apparently, for the few days he had to survive on the shit hole of a planet before returning gratefully to Helios. Maya’s squinting. She’s seen his face, she knows she has. It was just a couple days ago.

“...Isn’t this the kid that sent Helios crashing to the ground?”

“I believe he is. I think he was with Gortys. Or so I’ve gathered.” 

“So what!? Do we kill him?” The dwarf is piping up, and Maya’s taking a moment to look at Zer0 questioningly. He’s displaying a red shrugging emoji. He’s taking a few steps forward, until Axton is sending him a contemplative look.

“No, we’re not… Doing anything like that.”

“Rhysie, we need to get out of here.”

But Rhys’ legs are weak, he’s weak and his stomach is churning. He feels sick. Like fire is racing up his throat. He’s opening his mouth to say something quietly, but instead, the fire that raced up, bile, was all that spilled out, mingled with blood.

“Shit, he’s looking rough. What happened?” 

The soldier is crawling closer on his hands and knees, making sure to stay on Rhys’ level, as unintimidating as someone of his size could possibly be. The lankier of the two is sweating though, flinching when the hand touches his face carefully, inspecting the damage to his port with a sort of scowl. 

“You know about this Gortys thing?”

Rhys is trapped, a rabbit surrounded by wolves, with a wolf of a different pack at his back, one that’s trying to steal the prey for himself even though Rhys is the one who quickly re-invited Jack back into his life, desperate to escape the solitude that wandering Pandora’s desert had brought him. His heart is hammering, and he’s looking up at the group before quickly nodding.

“So we can get something out of him.” A red head is piping up from the door way, a heavy sounding robot following behind her. The group turns their heads for a brief second, all except Axton, who’s too focused on the brunet before him.

“...What do you know about it?”

“I-I can’t...” It’s so quiet, and Axton understands. He’s afraid of whatever was in that vault. Like most reasonable people. 

“Let’s get you to sanctuary, alright? Get you fixed up, and we can talk about it later, alright?” A large hand is being offered to Rhys in a sort of peace offering, and mismatched eyes are staring at it, his expression still clearly frightened while Jack screams at him to get the Hell out of there. There’s no way he can, though, absolutely no way. These people, he’s certain, will kill him. His mind is so cloudy and fogged, he’s so tired. So hurt. The amount of pain he’s in is starting to get overwhelming again.

After another minute, he decides pain is outweighing his fear and he’s taking the hand that’s still being patiently offered to him. The blue form stalking behind him, trying to scream into his ear, is just a noise in the background while the soldier supports his weight, helping the slightly shorter man out of the broken church.


	2. We Can Hide the Truth Inside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys is interrogated by the Vault Hunters to determine if he's safe to keep around, while Rhys just wants to escape with his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOAH I'M BACK HEY Y'ALL SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATES. I'M GONNA UPDATE FASHION AND PUT OUT CHAPTER 8 WITHIN THE NEXT DAY OR SO. I'LL PROBS EVEN WRITE A JASHA FIC SO KEEP UR EYES OPEN.

When Rhys woke up, he was in a dimly lit room, and there were voices. A lot of them. At first, he thought he must have been going crazy. There was no other way to explain the number of people talking all at once in his head. At least, not until he realized that they were in a different room, one near by where the door was probably open. His eyes exhaustively traced the room, trying to scan anything that would tip him off and help him decipher his location. Then, he remembered that he’d torn the thing out and it was faulty at best.

To his surprise, though, he was still getting Hyperion’s responses to things, all of which informed him that he was, in fact, on Pandora. That’s right. The group of ravenous looking people took him. The memory was hazy, and when the brunet tried to sit up, he grunted in pain, eyes looking to the stump where his cybernetic arm should be. Fuck. He was entirely disadvantaged on a planet full of murder happy psychopaths. 

That was when the tall, strong man with dirty blond cropped hair walked back into the room. The sight of Rhys sitting up appeared to relieve him, considering the smile gracing his features. He was a rather good looking man, Rhys would have to admit. That didn’t mean he wasn’t crazy, but he was a deceivingly good looking crazy person. 

“Hey! You’re up!”

“Uh… Yeah. Hey.”

“How’re you feeling? We got your eye fixed by our friend. She’s a scientist. Seems like she did a good job! The wires aren’t coming out anymore.”

“Uh, yeah. I mean, it’s working. I can see and scan things.”

“Good! Then you know where you are.”

“Pandora, right?”

“Right on the money. So, did you fall with the rest of the station?”

“I managed to get my way into an escape pod with the help of a friend...”

“Yeah? Then what? How’d you get so torn up? Did those damn psychos get ya?”

“Huh? Oh, uh-”

“Don’t you daaaaaaaaaare tell him anything!”

The voice that’s breaking through Rhys’ thoughts, again, is glitchy but recognizable. Rhys can’t openly talk with the AI in his head right now, so, when the elder’s blue figure, which was somewhat distorted, appeared before him, all the younger can do is watch him in a daze. Numbers and cubes of misplaced data are sticking out of where they should be, and while it’s not enough to make him look vastly different, it’s enough to throw Rhys off a little bit.

“He’ll kill you, AND me. Don’t EVER bring it up.” 

“Yeah… Damn bandits.”

“You probably think a lot like Jack, huh? ‘Damn bandits, damn vault hunters, damn Pandora’. Am I right?”

“Well, I mean… Pandora’s kind of a shit hole but, uh, vault hunters are pretty cool. Zer0’s cool. I met him while I was doing some work down here...”

“You met Zer0? I think he said something about that… Right! He said he saw you while he was working finding the Gortys pieces! So, do YOU know anything about Gortys, then?”

“Gortys…? That… Doesn’t really ring a bell… Sorry. I was just trying to make a business deal when some con artists screwed me over… Can’t trust anyone down here.”

“Ha. That’ll do it.”

“So, you’re a vault hunter too, then?”

“Yeah. Name’s Axton. I like shooting things and killing bandits. The usual down here.”

“I’m Rhys. I’m just a… Well, now I guess I’m an ex-Hyperion employee.”

“Nice to meet ya. So, right now you’re in sanctuary with my crew. I’ll introduce you when you’re ready. I figured you might want a shower and a break, huh? We can probably even get an arm up and goin’ for ya.”

“...Thanks. That’s… Wow, that’s really nice.”

“Well, I try. You seem kind of like a weenie. I don’t think you could defend yourself.”

“Hey! If I had both my arms I totally could defend myself just fine!”

“Really? Well then, when you get your other arm back, we’ll have to duke it out!”

Axton’s wearing a bright smile, and while those words are worrying Rhys, he’s still pretty tired and he doesn’t really think this man’s going to be fighting him anytime soon. Jack is tapping his toe impatiently next to the taller, sending him a never ending glare while Rhys tries to keep his focus on the man who’s physically with him. 

“Let me show you to the bathroom, there should be a towel in there for ya.”

“Thanks.” 

Axton, surprisingly enough, is taking Rhys’ hand in his own, easing the slender male up with little effort. After that, he’s keeping a hand on the shoulder of the smaller, leading him into the bathroom and keeping him steady all the while. Once he’s helped Rhys to sit on the toilet lid, he’s leaving the room, making sure to close the door behind him.

Rhys himself is locking the door, taking a moment to inspect himself in the mirror while discarding his clothing. He has to make sure he’s okay, that his body is okay. It’s frustrating, to be honest, trying to undress himself with only one hand. Despite the fact that one of his arms was removed to make way for the cybernetic one, he’s never actually had only one arm. He’s always had two. He’ll have to make do with what he has, though.

His torso, once he pulls off his dirty shirt, is also discoloured. Both blood and even more dirt are clinging to his body, and he’s pretty sure there’s nasty bruising, too. That’s… Good. Then, he’s pulling off his pants. There’s less blood below the belt, but he’s still filthy. He’ll just have to chalk that up to spending days stranded in the desert with an angry AI as his only companion. At least the hole where his arm went doesn’t seem to be infected, just mildly irritated. They must have used a healing hypo on him, that’s the only way the injury wouldn’t have (probably) killed him.

Letting out a deep breath, the younger is finally taking a moment to examine the bathroom he’s in. It’s surprisingly clean, with minimally yellowed floors and walls. The tub is clean from dirt and grime, and he doesn’t feel disgusting when he steps into it. Much to Rhys’ delight, there’s even warm water. It takes a minute to get there, but he doesn’t mind the cold spray. All of the water that hits his skin is undeniably refreshing, and he can watch his skin become porcelain again. 

The brunet takes his dear sweet time washing himself with the mildly scented bar of soap, which is, again, a slight challenge with only one arm, and spends a few minutes washing the dirt, blood, gel, and other unknown nasties out of his wavy locks. By the time he’s done, someone is knocking on the door. A feminine voice is accompanying the knock, asking when he’s going to be done.

Rhys doesn’t want to leave, to exit the bathroom and be surrounded by the group of sadistic vault hunters again, but that’s not much of an option, lest they drag him out and force him to answer their questions a lot less politely than they’re currently planning to. 

“You almost done in there?”

“...Yeah, I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

“I’ve got clean clothes for you. When you’re ready, they’re sitting outside the door. Please don’t come out naked.”

“Thanks...”

He feels hesitant. Instead of quickly drying himself off, he’s being slow, trying to waste time while the slightly worn out towel dries his skin, and then his hair. Once finished, Rhys wraps the cloth around his waist and again scrutinizes himself in the mirror. His eye looks healthy, like it normally did. Not red, not agitated, and his stump, now, was mostly normally toned. Well, as normal as it could look with his entire body slightly pink from the hot water. 

When he opens the door, it’s a crack, just enough to grab the clothes with his arm and pull them in hastily. He’s looking them over after shutting and re-locking the door, and he’s not completely thrilled. They’re black pants, a grey pair of boxer briefs, and a plain black sweater. He’d be lucky if any of this fit. Getting dressed is slightly easier than getting undressed was, considering the general lack of buttons, and once the clothes are on, he looks a little less starved and beaten up. 

With his one hand, Rhys does his best to tie up the sleeve. It feels weird, having hanging, loose fabric at his side instead of his arm. With a final attempt to shove back his damp, dark locks, the male is finally exiting the bathroom, his old, dirty clothes (sort of) neatly folded under his arm. Instead of Axton in the room he’d inhabited before, it was a blue haired woman with the tell tale tattoos of a siren. This must have been the Maya he’d heard about. 

“Hey. How’re you feeling?”

“...Better. Clean? I mean, that’s a huge step in the right direction. Still feeling super unbalanced, though. You know… With my arm gone.”

“Yeah? We’ll work on getting your arm back after we know just what you are. We just wanna have a group chat.”

“Uh-huh… It’s gonna be a friendly group chat, right?”

“Is there any reason why it shouldn’t be?”

“I mean… Aside from me being Hyperion, I guess not...” Shit. He’s blowing this. He’s fucking up. He can tell by the fact that Jack has reappeared just to glare at him disapprovingly.

“Alright. Then it will be friendly. Come with me.”

The floors are cold and Rhys isn’t wearing shoes, but he’s following the siren obediently, into the next room over. It’s full of people. Axton and Zer0 are there, an angry, black haired dwarf is sitting next to them, and next to him is a girl who looks no older than seventeen, with red hair and pigtails. There’s another red haired woman, who he’s recognizing as Lilith, and a pair of men are standing beside her. One was tall and lanky, much like Rhys himself, while the other was huge, a massive man who seemed about as dumb as he was powerful.

The blue haired siren spoke up finally, gesturing for the male beside her to take a seat. There does, in fact, seem to be a chair set in the middle of the room for him to take. Awkwardly, Rhys is taking it as his own, swallowing nervously once all eyes are on him.

“Alright, everybody. This is Rhys.” 

“Hello again, Rhys. It is good to see you’re well. How are you feeling?”

Everyone is allowing the brunet time to respond to Zer0’s greeting, so he is sheepishly. His voice is quiet when he speaks, and Jack is standing next to Axton, who’s the closest to being in front of him, shaking his head and exhaling uneasily. 

“I’m feeling okay… Better.”

“So, he’s ex-Hyperion, right? Why shouldn’t we kill him right now?”

The golden question everyone wanted answered had just been asked by who Rhys had assumed was the dumbest man in the room. 

“Do you see that kid? He’s not dangerous. He just needed help. Zer0 said he saw him around the time when he was looking for Gortys. We figured that, if nothing else, he may know something about it.”

“Which I don’t...” Rhys is assuring quietly, shaking his head and looking towards the blond. 

“But you were WITH Gortys. We saw you.” The lanky man is speaking up, causing all eyes in the room to again shift to Rhys. Fuck. That was right. These guys were with Vallory.

“Look… Gortys wasn’t MY thing, okay…? I was happy to give it up to Vallory. I was ready to be done with her. I just wanted to get home to Helios and STAY there.”

“Yeah. I could tell. You even ditched your Hyperion buddy. Man, at least we ‘dirty Pandorans’ wouldn’t leave one of our own behind.”

“You were trying to kill us and we couldn’t find him!” 

Nobody interrupted Rhys and Mordecai's conversation, since he seemed to have the easiest time fishing information out of the unfortunately naïve ex-Hyperion. 

“Oh yeah, that’s right. So, we ended up catching you guys anyway. The plan was to go to Helios and get the piece, right? Why’d Helios crash?”

“They were working on a Handsome Jack AI that went rogue and crashed the station when it malfunctioned.”

“...Wait, what?”

“R&D were doing shady stuff all the time that I didn’t know about. I was middle management and had NOTHING to do with them.”

“Then how’d you know he took over the ship?”

“Because his face and voice was all over the place? How the Hell else would I know? The damn thing shut down the power core. I don’t know anything that happened to Gortys after that.”

“And you’re SURE this AI is gone with the station?” Finally, someone is cutting in. It’s Lilith, who’s face is eerily serious as she glares to the male. He’s shrugging. What can he say? Jack looks more than angry, he looks scared. He’s clearly terrified that Rhys might give him away and get the both of them killed.

“How am I supposed to know? The only way the technology could have survived that devastation would be getting rescued by some super tech whiz. Which, for reference, isn’t me. I can’t do much without my arm, and that got taken from me pretty early on by bandits.”

“...Uh-huh. And you’re SURE there’s none of that AI left in you? I heard from our friend Athena that you acted pretty weird during your time together.”

“Look, I was stressed out. I’m from Eden 6. I didn’t grow up anywhere near this insanity. Helios was the closest I came, which was still WAY more tame than this. I thought I was gonna die constantly. Can you blame me for acting weird?”

“Nah, not really. I mean, you’d be pretty easy to take out.” Axton, thankfully, is sympathizing with Rhys. Everything he’s saying makes sense to the commando, and from the beginning, he’s felt that everyone was being way too hard on the brunet.

“So, who can we talk to to find out about this Gortys thing?” The teenage girl is asking. Rhys can only shrug again.

“The con artists Sasha and Fiona would probably be your best bets. I haven’t seen them since before the fall, and they were the ones with Gortys. I can’t do much else without an arm to hack with. If I had that, well… Maybe I’d be able to track Gortys for you.”

“How?” 

“The data’s in my head, but I can’t access it without the actual computer components that my arm provided.”

“So, we could kill you and take your cybernetics to find out?” the mammoth of a man is trying to clarify.

“Uh, no. You can’t. The second I die, all my data in my cybernetics is wiped. If the core is completely removed, along with my eye, it wipes itself. It’s a Hyperion safety measure they took to prevent data from falling into the wrong hands. I’d have to do it for you. Not that I mind. Like I said, I don’t want anything to do with Gortys.”

All of these lies Rhys is telling to spare his own life are making Jack think of things he SHOULD have had R&D do with their cybernetics, because that would have kept a lot of the company’s information safe, secure. Axton, Zer0, and Maya seem to understand what Rhys is saying, and, after he’s guided out of the room, he’s sure they’re the only three who are going to “vote” to keep him alive. At least, that’s what he’s presuming is happening. 

The brunet is sitting on the bed he’d woken up in again, and Jack is appearing in front of him, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“Good thinking. They won’t be expecting to find me if they think I went down with Helios. And getting yourself an arm is going to be a huge advantage to your escape, Kiddo. These vault hunters never did have a very technologically coordinated member of their team, so it’s good that you’re taking advantage of that. ...Good work, Rhysie. Just keep this shit up and we’ll be out of here in no time.”

At least, that’s what the pair are hoping for while they sit together nervously, awaiting the group’s final decision.


End file.
